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Q & A

Question:

Ever heard - or been asked - any of these questions: How is the playing field tilted to favor industrial agriculture? Why does concentration of control in the food system matter? What’s the pesticide treadmill? What's a "CAFO"? Aren’t there some crops you simply can’t grow with organic methods? How do you define “sustainable farming”?

For an in-depth look at the questions raised by this myth — download the Companion Reading Guide for this film, including answers to these questions and more. In this guide, Anna Lappé builds on the issues raised in the first MythBusting film and walks through some of the most critical questions related to the myth that we need industrial agriculture to feed the world.

Question:

Is there really a connection between Roundup Ready crops and no-till?

No-till is one form of “conservation tillage,” a variety of techniques by which farmers plant without first plowing. The idea is to minimize soil disturbance, leave last year’s crop residue on the soil, and so reduce soil erosion. USDA reports show clearly that use of conservation tillage jumped from the 1980s through mid 1990s, then leveled out. Soil erosion likewise plummeted over this period, only to level out from the mid 1990s on. RR crops, introduced in the mid 1990s, have not promoted con-till. Instead, it was policies in the 1985 and 1990 Farm Bills that tied subsidies to use of soil-conserving practices. (See this link, pp. 43-51.)

Question:

I’ve heard farmers can be sued for saving GE seeds to replant. Is this true? And how do the companies get away with this?

A series of U.S. Patent Office and court decisions in the 1980s allowed firms to patent living organisms: first, a GE bacterium, and soon after plants. Monsanto has exploited its patents on GE seeds to outlaw seed-saving, as a form of patent infringement. This forces farmers to return to the market each year to buy new (patented) GE seeds. Because the biotech giants now own half the world’s seed supply, and public sector breeders are dying out, farmers have ever fewer non-GE, non-patented seed choices. Monsanto has sued and collected tens of millions of dollars from thousands of farmers for allegedly saving the company’s patented seeds. Seed patents would be even more disastrous in developing countries, where poor farmers cannot afford commercial seed and are vitally dependent on seed-saving for survival.